Vaquero & Cibola "High Tone" mod...

pinenut

Bronze Member
Mar 15, 2016
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where bigfoot roams
Detector(s) used
Various Tesoro - mostly Bandido II μMAX
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
Hey folks, now that I've had some time playing with a few different model Tesoros, I know that I prefer the higher pitch tones that some have. My Eldorado has a just about perfect tone. The Bandido II micromax and Cutlass micromax are a fair bit higher still, but also pleasing to me. Knowing that you can get a "high tone" version of Vaquero and Cibola or have yours factory modified, I decided to send my most often used Vaquero, in to Tesoro for the factory mod. It should come back higher tone, as well as freshly calibrated and tuned to my small coil. I sent it off this morning. ^_^

Out of curiosity, how many of you use a high tone version Vaquero or Cibola, and if you've used both, how do you think the tones compare? Anyone know if my HT Vaquero will sound similar to my Eldorado, or have the even higher pitch tone of my Bandido II micromax...or?
 

I have a high tone Vaquero and had a low tone Cibola, prefer the high tone to the low tone. Seems to give me more info than the low tone. The pitch of the high tone for the Bandido 2 micromax is about perfect imo. The Eldorado has a good tone better than all except the B2 imo.
 

This is what it will sound like...this is mine that I bought new with the high tone option.
The new sound will be way higher than your Eldo, a bit lower than your Bandido.
https://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=vPkkKDNfXz8

It was my first Tesoro ever and fine for me for several months until I got a Compadre and realized I prefer the low tone instead, low tones are much more comfortable for me to listen to.
The high tone all of a sudden became annoying and I did consider sending it in to change it for $15 but then thought better of it for one reason only...it has a special superpower that none of my other detectors have including my Compadre.
When I swing over most aluminum, big or small, shallow or deep, it puts off a very "tinny" sound that just makes me grit my teeth and is annoying to no end.
I have heard many others mention this tinny sound over can slaw and larger can pieces but I think for me this is somehow exaggerated to the extreme and I realized I am able to hear this super annoying sound instantly over most aluminum pieces of any shape and size larger than the very tiny stuff in low foil all the way up into the full can area.
I don't know if it is just me that hears aluminum this way especially on the smaller stuff but I call this a superpower because for me it is instantaneous...if I grit my teeth it is aluminum and it has been 100% of the time so far.
I dug a ton of aluminum at first when I realized what this sound was to make sure but now I don't need to anymore, I have yet to dig up any target that was good when I have heard that sound...not one.
There are other ways to tell aluminum of course, coins have sharper ends to the sound, aluminum will usually be noisy on the end, will usually break up as you swing the coil over it and raise the coil but I don't need to spend even two seconds doing any of that...that teeth gnashing thing is faster and super accurate, for me anyway.
I considered changing back to the low tone and then thought about it some and realized as annoying as this is it is a very helpful ability when you hunt trashy parks and other areas like I do.
I put up with the annoying part because this is such an advantage to me in my trashy public park sites and saves a bunch of time and enables me to dig more targets per hunt overall.
If I want a change of pace I always have my Compadre and even though I have learned techniques to tell most aluminum on that one it is nothing like my high tone Vaq, no teeth gnashing at all on any aluminum or super tinny sound except on the really big stuff and even then it is different than what I hear on my Vaq.
Hope you like it, most seem to that choose this option but for me it is a love/hate relationship with just a little edge over to the love part because of this unique ability.
 

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When you stop to think about it, the higher tone would bring you more information faster. The reason is, if you could graph the tones in a sine wave, the higher the tone, the more waves there would be for any given time. Remember seeing the old oscilloscopes on TV movies? That same thing. Higher tones will get the sine wave moving faster, which is sort of the same thing as someone who talks fast (like a slick salesman) vs. someone who talks slower (like brain-damaged ME! :tongue1:). The salesman could have your purchase rung up and you be back home stressing over the money spent before I could get the warning out that the car you just bought sight-unseen was made by Matchbox. :laughing7:

This also means that, as your tone is constantly changing from moving the coil, that a higher tone can pass MORE info on to you before having to change tones to catch up with coil movement.
 

digger27 said:
...When I swing over most aluminum, big or small, shallow or deep, it puts off a very "tinny" sound that just makes me grit my teeth and is annoying to no end.
I have heard many others mention this tinny sound over can slaw and larger can pieces but I think for me this is somehow exaggerated to the extreme and I realized I am able to hear this super annoying sound instantly over most aluminum pieces of any shape and size larger than the very tiny stuff in low foil all the way up into the full can area.
I don't know if it is just me that hears aluminum this way especially on the smaller stuff but I call this a superpower because for me it is instantaneous...if I grit my teeth it is aluminum and it has been 100% of the time so far.
I dug a ton of aluminum at first when I realized what this sound was to make sure but now I don't need to anymore, I have yet to dig up any target that was good when I have heard that sound...not one.
There are other ways to tell aluminum of course, coins have sharper ends to the sound, aluminum will usually be noisy on the end, will usually break up as you swing the coil over it and raise the coil but I don't need to spend even two seconds doing any of that...that teeth gnashing thing is faster and super accurate, for me anyway.
I considered changing back to the low tone and then thought about it some and realized as annoying as this is it is a very helpful ability when you hunt trashy parks and other areas like I do..

I beileve I know this sound of which you write... I notice it most with my BandidoII and my Tejon (esp. with tone set higher), and a bit less with the Eldorado, unless the aluminum is bigger. I don't notice it as much with the Vaquero, though.

After crossing the aluminum, I don't hear it so much as a "tinny" sound, as much as a reverberated sort of "boing". It's wierd and I don't notice it as much on small foil, but sure do on larger pieces of aluminum, like the melted can blobs (lots of those here), screwcaps, whole, squished cans, etc. It's a distinct sound that I at first thought was just a larger target, then learned that when dug, they were always aluminum... I don't find the sound one bit annoying, but rather, sort of amusing.. It does tell me "aluminum" ~ don't bother... ^_^
 

No Terry, that hmm is a little low in pitch - he wants it a little higher. :laughing7:
 



BTW - If anyone with a standard tone Vaquero (or Cibola, I think..) would like to experience the higher tone version, the cost of this Tesoro factory mod for an original owner is ~ very ~ reasonable. If you're not the original owner it's a little higher, but included with the mod service will be a 'tune up' for your Tesoro. They'll check out functions and any noted issues you have, calibrate as needed, and ship back to you. Pretty good service for the price, I think. Makes me want to try two of every model... ^_^
 

No Terry, that hmm is a little low in pitch - he wants it a little higher. :laughing7:

Coffee all over the keyboard and screen. I'm still giggling a little. :laughing7:
 

I prefer the higher tone and had my Vaq modified. I really like the higher yet tone of the BII umax and Silver Sabre umax if I had any choice I wanted.
luvsdux
 

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I got my V back today, about a week after sending it in for the tone mod. The disc tone is now music to my ears, and Tesoro service was amazingly speedy!

Thanks, Tesoro folks!
 

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